Secrets of the Magister (2000) is one of the very last Forgotten Realms books to appear for 2E and it reveals, in detail, the long and storied history of the Magister, a topic long hinted at but never satisfactorily explained (FR4: The Magister, 1988, isn’t actually about the Magister, it’s a Pages of the Mages sort of magic expansion).

The Magister is the title given to a single mage at a time. Sometimes, that mage is a champion of magic, the one person in the world chosen by the gods of magic as best suited to spreading the study of the art. Other times, they are the mage that simply killed the previous Magister. This is clearly inspired by James Frazer’s Golden Bough and the idea of “killing the king” and I love it soooo much.

It’s a crap idea for an RPG, honestly — centering a campaign on the Magister either casts the players as perpetual second fiddles to an important NPC, or, if a PC becomes the Magister, has all the other PCs playing second fiddle to them. Neither is ideal, I think.

Still, the concept of the Magister is a delicious one, even just to read. The book charts the history of the office, highlighting its important and interesting holders. What a bunch of doomed idiots! Truly, Greenwood excels as coming up with endless arrogant wizards and ways to undo them. There are so many skulls in the artwork, so many illustrations of people screaming. It is telling, I think, that the most powerful mages in Faerun have stayed well away from this particular fray.

Solid art by David Day throughout. Bit of a daft cover, though — it features part of Fred Fields’ cover art for the third edition of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set, which, as TSR art recycling goes, isn’t a major foul. What’s bad is that they used the same bit for the Seven Sisters sourcebook in the same line. Hate that. Still, this is easily one of the most entertaining FR books I own.